We’re pleased to announce our 2025 festival, which begins with a weekend of One Act plays and includes both matinee and evening performances. This is followed by a week of Full Length plays, evenings only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A woman awakes in a cubicle. Unable to get out, she sees a body on the ground under the door. She is then visited by three different people.<\/em> Enda Walsh’s The Same is a two-hander exploring time and memory. It was first produced by Corcadorca Theatre Company at the Old Cork Prison, Cork, on 13 February 2017. It won The Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Play. In the play, two women each tell their story about moving to a new city and crossing paths with one another.<\/em> In Manchester during the blitz, Mary and Will sit in an Anderson shelter waiting for the ‘all clear’, however the conflict is not just happening on the outside of the shelter. Mary’s desire to talk and Will’s desire to remain silent is causing resentment since Charlie their son went to flight. Can a betrayal also be an act of love? <\/em> In a coma on life support, Person One lives out a fifteen-year existence on a bench at the edge of an abyss, witnessing many people over the years jump into it. When Person Two approaches the edge in a distraught state, they begin an encounter that explores with humour and empathy for the human condition the pros and cons of life and death.<\/em> The near future. The climate emergency is gathering pace, and our generation is being judged. The jurors are children. But are they delivering justice \u2013 or just taking revenge? The Trials is a near-future courtroom drama addressing the climate emergency and intergenerational conflict, as a jury of 12 to 17-year-olds sit in judgment over three adult defendants for the crimes they are alleged to have committed against the planet. <\/em> Three wronged women and their friend Cheryl discuss how they were given the ‘Big E’ and fantasise about the revenge they would like to take. Their fantasy becomes reality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Late Entry is a send up of amateur drama festivals, which are challenging for all concerned. Watching a favourite play being mangled by an incompetent actor would try the most patient of people, but the Adjudicator is expected to be positive, helpful and courteous in all his comments, that is until he meets the strangest production of hi<\/em>s career!<\/em> Jack is performing his own play, but his leading lady has not turned up. As he struggles to keep the audience’s interest an audience member takes matters into her own hands with hilarious consequences. <\/em> Fussy, cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine has remarried but finds himself haunted by the ghost of his late wife, Elvira. Clever, insistent and well aware of Charles’ shortcomings, Elvira is called up by a visiting “happy medium”, the eccentric and flighty Madame Arcati. As everyone’s personalities clash, Charles’ current wife Ruth, is accidentally killed. She “passes over” and joins Elvira, allowing the two “blithe spirits” to haunt the hapless Charles into perpetuity.<\/em> Jim Wormold, an under-employed vacuum cleaner salesman living in 1950s Cuba, is struggling to pay for his teenage daughter’s increasingly extravagant lifestyle. So when the British Secret Service asks him to become their ‘Man in Havana’ he can’t afford to say no. There’s just one problem…. he doesn’t know anything! To avoid suspicion, he begins to recruit non-existent sub-agents, concocting a series of intricate fictions. But Wormwold soon discovers that his stories are closer to the truth than he could have ever imagined… <\/em> O’Brien’s Dream is a musical play by the acclaimed Northern Irish playwright Bill Morrison. It deals with the experiences of Sean O’Brien when he arrives in Liverpool en route for a new life in America during the famine of 1847. In Liverpool he encounters various characters including the underworld and high society and finds love and hope despite various setbacks. The show features music written by Frankie Connor (from Radio Merseyside). <\/em> It is a summer’s morning in 1988 and Tory politician Robin Hesketh has returned to the Cotswold house he shares with his wife of 30 years, Diane. But all is not as blissful as it seems. Diane has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts as the familiar rhythms of marital sparring turns to blood sport. <\/em> Based on the popular autobiography – in a 1970’s Melbourne High School, Tim falls hopelessly in love with John, the captain of the football team. A unconventional love story through fast changing times. With a cast of six playing 43 unique characters between them, a high energy take on the heart warning comedy of their early life, the activism and exploration of their university days and finally tragedy that unfolds when they both contract HIV in the mid-eighties. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tickets now on sale via the Villa Gaiety<\/a> and we look forward to a varied and exciting week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re pleased to announce our 2025 festival, which begins with a weekend of One Act plays and includes both matinee and evening performances. This is followed by a week of Full Length plays, evenings only. One Act Festival Weekend Saturday 19 April, 3pm Service Players (Isle of Man) present Cubicle by Alessandro Mazzotta A woman … Continue reading 2025 One Act and Full Length Easter Festival of Plays<\/span>
(Drama)
*Contains strong subject material (suicide)”<\/p>\n\n\n\nService Players (Isle of Man) present The Same<\/em><\/strong> by Enda Walsh<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Psychodrama)
*Contains strong language<\/p>\n\n\n\nSaturday 19 April, 7:30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Goodbye Piccadilly Productions (Isle of Man) present Shelter <\/em><\/strong>by Jenny Derbyshire<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Drama)<\/p>\n\n\n\nRushen Players (Isle of Man) present A Bench at the Edge<\/em><\/strong> by Luigi Jannuzzi<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Dramatic Comedy)<\/p>\n\n\n\nSunday 20 April, 3pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Platform Theatre School (Isle of Man) present The Trials<\/em><\/strong> by Dawn King (shortened version)<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Drama)<\/em>
This is a shortened version of ‘The Trials’ by Dawn King, presented as an amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.<\/em>
*The near future. The climate emergency is gathering pace, and our generation is being judged. The jurors are children. But are they delivering justice \u2013 or just taking revenge? The Trials is a near-future courtroom drama addressing the climate emergency and intergenerational conflict, as a jury of 12 to 17-year-olds sit in judgment over three adult defendants for the crimes they are alleged to have committed against the planet. <\/em>
(Drama)<\/em>
This is a shortened version of ‘The Trials’ by Dawn King, presented as an amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.<\/em>
*Contains strong language and strong subject material (Euthanasia)<\/p>\n\n\n\nManx National Theatre (Isle of Man) present Big \u2018E\u2019 Club<\/strong><\/em> by C J Maybury<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Sunday 20 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Rushen Players\u00a0 (Isle of Man) present Late Entry by David Tristram<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Comedy)
*Contains strong language<\/p>\n\n\n\nService Players (Isle of Man) present Losing it<\/em><\/strong> by Derek Webb<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLosing it\u201d by Derek Webb by kind permission of Stagescripts Ltd.<\/em>
(Comedy)<\/p>\n\n\n\nFull Length Play Festival Week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Monday 21 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Wellington Theatre Company (Wellington) present Blithe Spirit<\/em><\/strong> by No\u00ebl Coward<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Comedy)<\/p>\n\n\n\nTuesday 22 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
White Cobra Productions (Northamptonshire) present Our Man in Havana<\/em><\/strong> by Clive Francis<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Comedy)<\/p>\n\n\n\nWednesday 23 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Keyhole Theatre (Liverpool) present O\u2019Brien\u2019s Dream<\/em><\/strong> by Bill Morrison<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Musical Play)<\/p>\n\n\n\nThursday 24 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Full Circle Theatre Company (Essex) present Hansard<\/em><\/strong> by Simon Woods<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Comedy)<\/p>\n\n\n\nFriday 25 April, 7.30pm<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Garden Suburb Theatre (London) present Holding the Man<\/em><\/strong> by Tommy Murphy<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
(Comedy\/Drama)
*Contains strong language and scenes of a sexual nature<\/p>\n\n\n\n